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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29613798">The Elvish Tongue</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saentorine/pseuds/Saentorine'>Saentorine</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study, Developing Friendships, Dwarves, Eavesdropping, Elves, Elvish, Enemies to Friends, Fellowship of the Ring, Gen, Gossip, Languages, Languages and Linguistics, Middle Earth, Sindarin, talking about people when you THINK they don't understand</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:01:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,027</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29613798</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saentorine/pseuds/Saentorine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Legolas frequently miscalculates that no one can understand what he is saying.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aragorn | Estel &amp; Legolas Greenleaf, Gimli (Son of Glóin) &amp; Legolas Greenleaf</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Elvish Tongue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/20820224">Not Unchanged</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saentorine/pseuds/Saentorine">Saentorine</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><i>Adûni</i> and <i>Annûnaid</i> refer to Westron, aka the common-tongue language that everyone is speaking when they're speaking English in the book/film.</p>
<p>More movie canon than books, but not necessarily contradictory to the books.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Why don’t you speak like the rest of us?” asked Pippin, interrupting an animated but private conversation between Legolas and Aragorn. Speaking in the Elvish tongue known to both of them, they had little fear of being overheard. “Not <i>all</i> of us have learnt some Elvish like cousin Frodo.” </p>
<p>The youngest halfling was clearly irritable that his attempts to eavesdrop had been thwarted. He wondered if they were speaking about him-- and not without good reason, for indeed they had been. The little one constantly complained of hunger; Legolas wondered if they were indeed starving him and ought to forage a little more robustly in order not to lose him along the way, while Aragorn was convinced he simply needed to adjust. They kept their speculation in confidence, for of course Pippin would have his own opinions on the matter.</p>
<p>“Oh, my Adûni is not so good,” Legolas demurred, as if the prospect of speaking the Hobbit’s language was a trial. It was easy to believe, for in the first days of their journey Legolas spoke the least of all of them. He was content for Mithrandir and Aragorn to lead the party and did not intervene when Boromir made his arguments to steer towards Minas Tirith. He trusted those who had assumed leadership and kept his ears open only for necessary commands and warnings-- and any hint of insult from the Dwarf, which he immediately defended against loud and clear. </p>
<p>In truth, he had perfectly adequate facility with the common tongue to their Fellowship. He had been taught it in childhood lessons and grown up stumbling over it in his dealings with the men of Esgaroth, and Elrond certainly would not have considered his appointment to their quest if there were any question of his ability to communicate with the others. He just didn’t <i>like</i> to use it. So much more comfortable was his mother tongue, the Sindarin of his father’s people infused with traces of his mother’s language indigenous to the woodland folk: easy on the ears and pleasant on the tongue, with soft consonants and long, lolling vowels that transfigured simple speech into something more like song. </p>
<p>Annûnaid, as his people called it, though distantly rooted in the languages of his kin, was comparatively harsher, jarring, and rough to his ears. It was a language even the orcs could bend to their use. He had never spoken it so well as to have dreamt in it. In dreams his companions spoke in the sweet tones of his home instead, sometimes even in verse, as if their journey bore the same dignity of the great epics of the past. Legolas spoke his own tongue as much as possible in waking life to ensure it stayed this way.</p>
<p>He also spoke it because it was easiest to speak frankly of the others when they could not understand. </p>
<p>Aragorn was the vessel for his gossip. Mithrandir could understand him as well, of course, but the grey wizard’s wit and anger were easily roused and he would often fire back his own well-aimed barbs at Legolas’s complaints. Aragorn also expressed displeasure at some of Legolas’s harsher critiques, scolding him for expecting too much of halflings that had never held a blade and his unquenchable disdain for Gimli’s entire existence—but at least he listened.</p>
<p>However, it was a serious topic he broached after Boromir was tempted again by the Ring on Caradhras. The entire company was tense with anticipation as he lifted the relic, all of them having witnessed this same desire at the council where their journey had begun. Boromir pondered the “little thing” for several endless seconds, fire in his eyes, until finally returning it to Frodo. Their collective sigh of relief was inaudible but obvious.</p>
<p>When the winds eased at the base of the mountain and it was possible to converse at ease again, Legolas raised his concerns to Aragorn. Chatting merrily with the halflings in their gladness to have escaped the mountain, Boromir followed but a little way behind, a very different man than the one who had caused such alarm at altitude.</p>
<p>“Boromir is still not content to trust the Ring to Frodo,” Legolas fretted in their shared tongue. “Should we fear that this will continue or worsen?” Aragorn’s lips were narrow, eyes darting cautiously behind him. Legolas grew irritated; Boromir could not understand them, but such behavior would surely alert him to the topic of their discussion. “Perhaps we should indeed journey to Gondor as he suggests and depart again in secret, leaving him behind.”</p>
<p>Legolas was startled as the subject of their debate suddenly strode forth and overtook them, his broad shoulder butting Legolas with firm intent as he passed.</p>
<p>As Legolas stared after him in insult, Boromir muttered just loud enough for him to hear: “<i>I can hear you</i>”-- in an odd but perfectly comprehensible Sindarin.</p>
<p>When the shock had passed, Legolas hissed to Aragorn in Sindarin, naturally, but also a hushed voice. “He understood me? Why does a Man know the language of the Elves?”</p>
<p>“<i>I</i> know the language of the Elves,” Aragorn pointed out.</p>
<p>“You were raised in the house of Elrond.”</p>
<p>“Your tongue is also the language of nobility in Gondor,” he explained. “If I had not already learnt it in my childhood I would have learned it in my travels there. Of course Boromir speaks it in their fashion.”</p>
<p>“Why didn’t you tell me?”</p>
<p>“Did you think to ask?” Aragorn gave a wry smile.” I may have let you take the full length of rope, but you hung yourself, my friend.”</p>
<p>So Legolas learned not to speak of Boromir, at least not within earshot. He did wonder about Frodo, who knew a little of the ancient tongue of the Noldor, but was certain the two youngest halflings-- the two he was most likely to complain of-- hadn’t the faintest clue. Certainly the Dwarf was no risk, though Legolas did not particularly care either way; he spoke his complaints on Gimli without secrecy or subtlety, even to his face.</p>
<p>It was sweet relief to arrive in Lothlorien and find himself surrounded by another woodland dialect of Sindarin so like his own, and for a while his attempts to speak secretly of the others ceased.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>After the breaking of their fellowship they had much more to complain about, yet Legolas spoke aloud his grievances far less. He had not the heart to criticize anything of his two remaining companions, whose stout hearts drove them forward in pursuit to spare their erstwhile compatriots a horrible fate. To center his discomfort felt like it would kill what little limping hope remained.</p>
<p>However, his hope finally faltered as he watched decrepit old men and beardless boys arm themselves for battle at Helm’s Deep, now fully understanding his people’s famous reluctance to risk their own immortality to support such pathetic chances. He switched to his own language to protest their foolish involvement in such a hopeless trial until Aragorn revealed the nature of their debate by shouting his response in the common tongue.</p>
<p>“You were terribly indiscreet,” Legolas chided him when they were alone again. “We were speaking in confidence. You need not have frightened them by revealing how dire we know their fate to be.”</p>
<p>“I was indiscreet?” Aragorn raised his eyebrows. “You still haven’t learned, have you? Some of them already understood what you were saying. You were not so secret as you believe.”</p>
<p>Legolas had assumed the crowd had turned to watch simply because of the fury of their conversation. They had gone quiet so suddenly, quiet enough to listen . . . </p>
<p>Aragorn watched the realization dawn on him. “I must warn you not to try it around Théoden King,” he cautioned. “He speaks your tongue perfectly, having learned it in his youth in Gondor.”</p>
<p>“Why do all these Men know the language of the Elves?” Legolas cried, bewildered.</p>
<p>“Did not the Eldar teach even the trees to speak? Did they not make a mission of spreading their words throughout the world? And was it not the greatest king of your father’s people who ruled that none but his language be spoken throughout his lands?” Aragorn asked him. It was not the first time the man had known more of Legolas’s history than Legolas himself remembered. “We are speaking the language of the most extensive empire to have existed in Arda, which has influenced civilizations for many thousands of years. You cannot be so surprised that others also speak it!”</p>
<p>Legolas sighed, deferring again to Aragorn’s long sight and sound judgement of so many matters of the world, and passed Aragorn his sword while apologizing for his earlier despair.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>His facility with Adûni improved markedly in his final months of the journey. Speaking it daily with his companions he found himself more fluent than he had ever been, no longer hesitating to use it nor mentally translating before he spoke. He could think in the language now, and even dream. It frightened him at first, his dreams being of a different quality, so that he wondered if they were some intrusion of the Enemy-- until he realized it was simply his mind making peace with the language, adopting it as intimately as his own.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it was a delight to be in the company of Elves again when they met with Elrond’s elder sons as they rallied forces for the final confrontation with the Enemy. The familiar speech of home came rushing back to him in a delightful whirl, and he was so overtaken that it took him a moment to realize when Gimli also introduced himself to Aragorn’s brothers perfectly in the Elvish tongue. </p>
<p>He did a double take, wondering if he imagined Gimli’s wink before he turned away as if he had done nothing so remarkable.</p>
<p>“When did you learn to do that?” Legolas demanded. He hadn’t taught him. Gimli had expressed no interest in learning before.</p>
<p>“When did I learn to speak the language of your people?” he reframed the question, still aggravatingly casual. “Why, I’ve always known some.”</p>
<p>“Always known--?” Legolas was astounded. “You mean you’ve understood every private word I’ve said to Aragorn since we left Rivendell?”</p>
<p>“More or less.” He was having trouble suppressing his grin.</p>
<p>“How--!”</p>
<p>“My kin in Erebor and your folk of the Greenwood shared in trade for long years before the rise of the Adûni tongue. How do you suppose they managed it?” he asked. “And the language of my people is secret amongst my people—but would your people have deigned to learn it even if they could?”</p>
<p>He thought of what Aragorn had said of the extent of Sindar civilization-- how even in his grandfather’s best efforts to assimilate to culture of the woodlands it had been the language of the settlers that had prevailed, subsuming the original speech of the woodland folk. It had then pushed itself upon all the peoples that had allied and traded with them as well, the common tongue of the world until only recently. And here he had thought he spoke something exclusive and secret!</p>
<p>“Do you not remember the words carved into the doors of our greatest city?” Gimli asked. “Do you remember into what language they were carved? Whether the Elves have been our friends or foe, we have always known a little of the Elvish tongue.” </p>
<p>Legolas’s heart sank with an icy splash, thinking of the many cruel and petty things he had said before they had bonded in Lothlorien. Gimli had heard the many insults he spoke openly, but so much worse were the cruel fates he wished upon him privately afterward, many of them so harsh Aragorn usually pretended he wasn’t listening. “I’m so sorry!” he gasped. “You must have heard me say such horrible things!”</p>
<p>Gimli laughed. “The sting of the insult has long passed,” he assured him, “and in fact, your apology has already been made. In these months since our stay in Lothlorien I have not heard you say a single cruel thing about me-- even when you thought you spoke in secret. Nothing could stand as greater proof of the change in your heart.”</p>
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